


No, Ruby...

by handschuhmaus



Category: Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town - Cake (Song), Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Father-Daughter Relationship, I mean it's the 90s but that's not really historical yet so, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Light Angst, Period-Typical Homophobia, no jealous husbands here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-06-26
Packaged: 2018-11-05 02:22:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11003997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/handschuhmaus/pseuds/handschuhmaus
Summary: Ruby, are you contemplating going out somewhere...?(A reworking of the story in the song "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town")





	No, Ruby...

**Author's Note:**

> I, ah, used the pre-existing tag for a version of "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town". I am not really satisfied with the Cake version for the mood in this story and would recommend renditions by Kenny Rogers (during which I actually got the idea), possibly the Killers, or even Leonard Nimoy.
> 
> (Sorry, written by someone who isn't remotely caught up in the slightest with SU so may not reflect canon relationship very well)

She's in the upstairs bathroom, he can tell from the sound of her feet on the floor, and she's been in and out for almost half an hour already. And he saw her nice clothes in the laundry when she did the ironing--they always used to wear wrinkled clothes, because he hadn't worked out how to use the normal ironing board from the wheelchair very well and didn't think it was worth bothering about an adaption. 

She'd eaten lightly earlier at supper (he'd put together some pork chops and lima beans, sliced up early tomatoes she brought in that morning), probably saving her appetite for popcorn at a movie or maybe sundaes. It's just--he knows you don't go to the movies, or the Dairy Cone alone at her age, and that--that's gonna be a problem for her. How do you raise a kid tough enough to get through life and then let them actually do it?

And then she's downstairs, looking for something apparently and she looks really nice. He didn't teach her much of that, didn't know how, but he supposes it is fairly simple to apply lipstick, and that's the only obvious makeup she's wearing (maybe he'd see more if he were closer or looking right at her face, but he's not.) She doesn't have to do much to get her hair looking good, just as long as they're not buying some wrong kind of shampoo.

Ruby is a good kid. He taught her a lot. How (somehow!) to fix most stuff on a car, how to repair the vacuum cleaner and the garbage disposal, how to assemble furniture (okay, they did have to consult the actual furniture directions but fair enough), how to fish, how to identify rocks and how to polish them. How to scramble or fry or boil an egg (but not how to make anything special in the omelette department), cook a steak, make bread sorta like his mom used to, wire a simple circuit, even how to solder after his brief stint in electronics.

He doesn't exactly think this will make her a good wife (that's what his parents would have thought, while he can't help but think she's going to be on her own), but those aren't a bad set of skills for someone's spouse to have. His wife could do most of those things (not fry an egg, not fix anything car engine-related beyond low fluids) but that has little to do with their marriage, or how it had been really hard because he had what they used to call shellshock aside from the war wound and she'd said she needed space for a few days and drove off, into the path of a semi with failed brakes and then, well, the hereafter.

And he doesn't really ultimately think he taught Ruby to love a woman. It's just--she does. He's seen Sapphire (what a coincidence in names) and overheard them and she's pretty and nice and he honestly probably wouldn't mind having her for a daughter-in-law.

But he's still so very badly torn because you can't do anything without it entering the gossip around here and there are a lot of people who don't consider two women together appropriate.

There's some part of him that says he'd rather see her dead than hurt like it's going to hurt. And that hurt is gonna make her want to leave town, not like her momma but because it's not nice to grow where you aren't wanted, not when you're a person that can walk off and go. Oh, he, at least, can wheel himself around but...

It's not like he's going to be around that much longer, surely, and certainly he knows it's been hard growing up with a dad with useless legs. Been hard on her to do the things that needed doing that he couldn't really do; she had to grow up too fast, really. But he wants to be selfish, wants to watch Ruby blossom into a full-fledged adult, maybe even wants to get to be a grandpa.

\--and she's left, the screen door bangs when it shuts and he's so afraid that they're--thoughtless people who don't want to think beyond their own experience--gonna break his little girl. He has to breathe in sharp because he really is frightened for her; doesn't matter that he faced war, he doesn't want her to endure stares and whatever it is they call queer kids nowadays...

But. She is a good kid, she's strong, she's thoughtful. And if she needs someone to tell her she's not put together wrong that it's okay that she loves who she does--he could do that. Even if it's over the phone. He has the van, he has the dog they've been training to help him with tasks and with the problems he has sometimes getting upset. Ruby's Aunt Rose is looking for a new place to stay and she could work in their town. They can do this. 

He realizes there's a tear running down his cheek as he reaches into the sock drawer and pulls out some of his secret cash. It'll help them get away if they need to; maybe there's places that are more friendly to women who love women.

"Ruby," he yells at the screen door, "turn around! I've got something for you."

* * *

(She walks back in, still looking so pretty, holding the dog's leash. "I haven't left yet, Dad. I thought it'd be easier if I took her out than you doing it later.")

**Author's Note:**

> (...yeah I'm afraid this isn't typical content for me. There may be another chapter, connected to a different song, but I don't really have much to tell you if you're looking for more.)


End file.
